US applications fall again last week, remain at historically healthy level

WASHINGTON - The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits fell last week and remain at historically healthy levels despite some signs that the labor market is weakening.

U.S. applications for jobless claims for the week ending Dec. 20 fell by 10,000 to 214,000 from the previous week's 224,000, the Labor Department reported Wednesday. That's below the 232,000 new applications forecast of analysts surveyed by the data firm FactSet.

The weekly report was released a day early due to the Christmas holiday.


Applications for unemployment aid are viewed as a proxy for layoffs and are close to a real-time indicator of the health of the job market.

The four-week average of claims, which evens out some of the week-to-week volatility, fell by 750 to 216,750.

The total number of Americans filing for jobless benefits for the previous week ending Dec. 13 rose by 38,000 to 1.92 million, the government said.